New BAE leader puts focus on people

DeEtte Gray's strategy for growing BAE I&S starts with culture

By Nick Wakeman

Dec 11, 2012

For the new president of BAE System’s Intelligence & Security business, the best leadership training she received was 20 years ago, when she walked into a public middle school as the new math and science teacher.

“When you go into that building, you are on a stage from the minute you walk in to the minute you walk out,” said DeEtte Gray, who took her new job at BAE in June running a 7,000-person, $2 billion a year organization.

Teaching sixth and seventh graders taught her a lot about herself. “You learn what pushes your buttons and you learn how to control that,” she said. “I learned leadership and temperament. And remember, schools can be very political places too.”

Gray joined BAE from Lockheed Martin Corp., where she had worked for 13 years, and was vice president of the company’s enterprise IT solutions business. She started as a software developer at Lockheed and then quickly moved into management. She was a vice president by the time she was 38 years old.

Just 43 now, Gray jokes that she never had a career plan, but she does have a guiding principle: reaching for assignments that make her stretch her abilities.

Whether it was moving from the classroom to local government programming geographic information systems, and then to the world’s largest defense contractor, Gray said she has always looked for the next challenge.

The move to BAE is no different. The job doubles the number of people she is ultimately responsible for, and it comes at one of the tougher times in the government market.

Her business at BAE was built through a series of acquisitions over the last 15 years, and “we still have stovepiped businesses, so we are trying to get some efficiencies across the business,” she said.

The process of creating shared human resources and financial systems were already underway when she joined BAE. Gray is continuing that effort and is particularly interested in leadership and technical training.

“My biggest priority is building a sustainable, growing business and that’s difficult today,” she said. “But there are several ways to do that.”

Identifying and then developing key talent is a critical component of her strategy, Gray said.

Finding those rising stars is part of a culture change she is leading at I&S.

“We aren’t there yet, but when you build a culture you start with what does top talent look like? What are the types of behaviors that top talent have?” she said.

Managers need to review their talent like they review financials. The annual review process has to include discriminators of top talent.

“You have to make sure your managers set the right example and that starts with management training,” she said.

A key is rewarding and recognizing good behavior. “Eventually it becomes part of the culture. People identify top talent and people want to be them,” Gray said. “And you have to communicate it.”

Gray’s focus on BAE’s talent as part of her strategy is there because the company’s people are the key to the company’s success, she said.

“It is a very humble company, which is good, but in a competitive market you have to talk about the things you are good at,” she said.

The company’s talent lines up with areas of growth: intelligence analysis, training, cybersecurity, systems integration and development and IT support.

Gray’s leadership team at BAE I&S includes Paul Falkler, vice president and general manager of IT and cybersecurity solutions, Jordan Becker, vice president and general manager of geospatial intelligence, Kate Hall, vice president and general manager of global analysis, and Brian Sheridan, vice president and general manager of what the company call its SpecTal business, which provides specialized security and intelligence consulting.

The competition BAE faces in them market is intense so the management challenge is positioning your company to be competitive, Gray said.

“Budgets are shrinking so you have to be relevant and agile in the way you bid, and the way you work day-to-day with your customers,” she said. “You need a culture where everyone is thinking about how do we improve?”

That focus is as much internal as customer facing, particularly when looking at internal processes, Gray said. “Can you do something in 2 steps that now takes 10?” she said.

Gaining internal efficiencies isn’t a matter of piling more work onto fewer people. “I don’t believe we are going to get where we need to be by cutting people or salaries, but we have to be asking are doing things that add value?” she said. “If we are doing something that doesn’t add value, then we should stop doing it.”

In just the first few months on the job, Gray has been focused on getting to know her company and identifying the discriminators that will help BAE compete in a tough market.

While the company has distinct technology capabilities in areas such as cyber, training and enterprise IT management, Gray’s focus always loops back to people.

“I want to build a culture where people want to work and they become your discriminators,” she said. “It isn’t rocket science, but it is back to basics and in this market you have to stay focused.”

About the Author

Nick Wakeman is the editor-in-chief of Washington Technology. Follow him on Twitter: @nick_wakeman.

Reader Comments

Fri, Dec 28, 2012
pete

@Don - out of all the scenarios (1-6) listed by you, which do you feel are the most important to BAE? Can you blur the lines between these since there are examples where companies fit in more than one category.

Thu, Dec 13, 2012
Don O'Neill

Focusing on people as the discriminator of competitiveness is essential. However the focus of the organization must depend on the domain of forces to which it must respond. Where a valued aspect is dominant, such as, reputation and image, economics and finance, mission and continuity of operations, indicators of competitiveness, supply chain management and outsourcing, and trustworthiness and high assurance, an optimum response may result, thereby, simplifying the making of commitments, setting goals, and conducting tradeoffs. In less optimal situations, a blend of valued but competing aspects may lead to a more diverse response to these forces.
1. An organization driven by reputation and avoiding the risk of loss of trust may place a high value on trustworthiness and security along with the steps needed to assure these attributes. The telecommunications, financial services, and medical sectors where trust is all-important fit the reputation scenario.
2. An organization driven by economics may place a high value on profitability and attributes like cost control, productivity, and span of responsibility. The financial services, manufacturing, and utilities and energy sectors fit the economics scenario.
3. An organization driven by mission may place a high value on sustainability, capability control, and capacity control as well as reliability, availability, security, and resiliency. The telecommunications, transportation, medical, and defense sectors fit the mission scenario.
4. An organization driven by competitiveness may place a high value on release frequency, time to market, and innovation as well as cost and schedule control and predictability control. The manufacturing and e-commerce sectors fit the competitiveness scenario.
5. An organization driven by outsourcing may place a high value on release frequency, time to market, and innovation as well as quality control, configuration management, and span of responsibility of onshore staff. The manufacturing sector fits the outsourcing scenario.
6. An organization driven by high assurance may place a high value on trustworthiness including quality control, defect free, predictability control, resiliency, and frequency of release. The telecommunications, financial services, transportation, medical, and defense sectors fit the high assurance scenario.

Wed, Dec 12, 2012

Most new leadership are like politician. They talk the talk and walk the walk. But nothing really gets done. BAE has a long history and culture. It's to be seen if anything really changes within the next 3 years to becoming the top 10 employer of the world.

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